BOOKS ON  JAZZ - DANCE BANDS - VOCALISTS - THE BLUES
RECORDS, LABELS, RECORDING, PLAYER EQUIPMENT

Generally listed in chronological order of publishing within the broader category. 

MUSIC ENCYCLOPEDIAS, COLLECTIONS and COLLECTING

FIRST HITS 
The Book of Sheet Music 1946-1959.
Brian Henson and Colin Morgan. Introduction by Teddy Johnson. Boxtree Limited, UK. 1989.  Softcover, 302 pages, mono photos of sheet music covers. An excellent covrage of the music of the times, with the top six chart. Within each year, songs are listed with brief details but of particular interest is the list of recordings by vocalists, groups and bands. There is a separate index of songs in alphabetic order, and an index of performers. Very useful.

MILLER'S COLLECTING VINYL
John Stanley. Miller's, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., London. 2002.
Softcover, 240 papges, mono photos, colour platesindex, glossary, list of record companies. 
Looks at the specifics of collecting such as typesof records, value, then lists collectable records within each genra.A good description of the type of music is presented, for example, ‘Jazz' is divided into thirteen ‘types' of jazz from treaditional to fusion. The selction of collectable albums is limited due to space, and, insofar as the jazz section is listed, is rather superficial. 

LABELS

THE AMERICAN RECORD LABEL BOOK
Brian Rust. Da Capo Press. New York 1984. Hardcover, 336 pages, mono images of labels, glossary. Label names are listed in alphabetic order. This is without doubt a definitive work, as is any publication by this knowledgeable British author, researcher and jazz expert. The text is as detail, and varies from a single paragraph to several pages depending no doubt on the information available. 

DIRECTORY OF AMERICAN DISC RECORD BRANDS AND MANUFACTURERS, 1891-1943.
Allan Sutton. Greenwood Press, Westport, USA, 1994. Hardcover, no dustjacket but very neat embossed label on cloth cover, 281 pages, index, no images. This is an excellent book, a most unseful reference, especially in the way it is organised. It commences with a general writeup of some important aspects of sound recording before going into a  165 page summary of the labels. This is followed by 76 pages on the manufactuers of those labels. The text is to the point. The Appendixes are very interesting and useful. There is one on Phantom Labels - those registered but did not produce a product. Appendix 2 attempts, with good success, to graph the relationships between the many manufacturing companies, a most useful tool. I managed to find a good copy of the book at a reasonable price in August 2008, even thought I had been advised by email by Allan Sutton that an updated edition will be released in 2009. I couldn't wait! Unfortuantely I bought this too late to use it extensively for the modest write-ups that I have done on the labels. But now that I have the book, I can't put it down - I should have found a copy years ago! 

RECORDING AND PLAYING EQUIPMENT

HI FI AND STEREO
Richard Roberts. Collier Quick and Easy Series. A Self Instruction Guide to Assembly, Installation, and Maintenance in the Home. Collier Books, New York, 1965. Large A4 format, softcover, 181 pages, mono photographs, drawings and graphs, glossary of technical terms, no index. Books like this were the bible of any hi-fi enthusiast in the sixties and seventies. Packed with technical and ‘sound' advice, it enabled the mucis lover to set up ghis or her gear with the exactitude necessary for any keen listener. It's interstesting to look back half a century and remeber the old valve amplifiers, huge woofers, delicate turntables, cumbersome tape recorders, and instructions on how to clean, maintain and store records. They were fun days. I laugh when people suggest that it is best to wait to buy a colour TV as ‘they are getting cheaper and better each day'. Hey, nobody I know of had the ltest hi-fi gear in ‘the early days' - as soon as you bought it, there was asomething new on the market with less ‘wow and fluttr' which you just had to have, even if your ears couldn't detect any difference. Delicate turntables? New house (my first), toddler child, hi-fi gear - not good partners. So - I cut a large hole in the lounge room floor, sunk down and concreted four steel water pipes into the earth, balanced the turntable on top of it, and built a cabinet around the lot. Bravo - no child of mine ever sractched a record by bumping into the turntable! My wife left me shortly after. True! 

HIGH FIDELITY TREASURY (SECOND)
Wyeth Press. Massachusetts, USA. 1965. Softcover, 128 pages, mono photographs and drawings. Many authors over twenty-eight essays: can hi-fi be measured, amplifiers - tube of transistor, stereo cartridges, microphone, the origins of psychoacoustics, distortion - the eternal enigma. Certainly take you back to the era of seeking sound perfection. 

SET UP YOUR OWN HI-FI - A BEGINNER'S GUIDE
R.H.Warring. Lutterworth Press, Guildford and London. 1974, second impression 1976. Hardcover, dustjackeet, 126 pages, index, mono drawings, many appendicies. Of historic interest now.

THE EDISON CYLINDER PHONOGRAPHS 1877 - 1929. 
A Detailed Account of the Entertainment Models Until 1929. 
George L. Frow (England) nd Albert F. Sefl (USA). Self-published 1978. Hardcover, dustjacket, 207 pages, bibliography, glossary, no index, mono photographs and drawings. (There was a perfect bound edition also). To me, and no doubt to thousands of others who have an interst in the early cylinder records and recording, this is a most valuable book. It commences with an excellent history on the development of sound recording and playing machine, and the commercial deveelopment of the domestic models through to 1929. The majority of the book is taken up with a detailed description of each of the various cylinder player models, from the table-top models to the units in floor-standing caabinets. Prices are included, together with a list of accessories, and special features. There is also an extensive section on Reproducers (the ‘head' containing the needle that vibrates to form the sound), on horns, repeating attachments, and shavers. As I have several models, this was a most useful book to gain further knowledge of when the units were built and how they compared with others. A great book, now quite fiscally valuable;  and thanks to my second wife's rellies for the birthday gift in 1979. 

THE EDISON DISC PHONOGRAPHS AND THE DIAMOND DISCS.
A History with Illustrations.
George L. Frow. Self published, Kent, UK, 1982. Hardcover, dustjacket, 285 pages, mono photographs and drawings. This is a wonderful companion to ‘The Edison Cylinder Phonographs 1877-1929', listed above, and to ‘A Guide to the Edison Cylinder Phonograph (1970), also by Frow, which I do not have. It starts of course with a brief history of sound recording and the emergence of the Diamond Disc. The disc players take up nearly half the book, with great detail . The manufacture of the discs themselves, and their use in home and office follows. There is no discography. A necessary book for any owner of a diamond disc player. 

BUYER'S GUIDE OF AUDIO AND VIDEO EQUIPMENT 1980.
Published by Times Directories (Pte), Singapore, 1979. Large A4 size, softcover, 304 pages, many mono photographs with advertisements in colour. I've kept this treasured item as it is a great reminder of what we used in the asixties and seventies. Half the book is a technical treatice on the equipment, the rest on the available equipment itself with basic specifications and (Singapore dollar) prices. Wow - a Marantz 2500, 250 watts per channel ontp 8 ohms, full complementary direct coupled output with advanced turbo-flow heat dissipation, and a 15Hz 18bD per octave Butterworth low filter - I still have no idea what that means.  Memories ! 

THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PHONOGRAPHS.  Daniel Marty.
French edition published in 1979 by Edita S.A. Lausanne. English edition published in 1981by Edita. (My)  edition published by Dorset Press, New York, 1989. Hardcover, extra large coffee-table production, dust jacket, 188 pages, full colour and mono photographs, glossary, bibliography. This wondeful book is an absolute delight to browse throughWhereas it may be light on text, it presents superb quality photographs making it one of the finest books on music and music reproduction that I have seen. It looks at sound reproduction more from the French pojnt of view and puts Charles Cros before Thomas Edison, but not in any superior manner. Chapters continue: Graphone and Columbia, Beliner's Gramophone, Edison and his equipment, f course, and Bettini with his.  The Universal Exhibition of 1889 in Paris had people lined up with rubber tubes in theor ears and grins on theor facesas they heard a recorded voice for the first time. And how much would Henri Lioret's talking doll cost today - if you could find one. I particularl;y like the weight-driven Lioretgraph cylinder player. The Pathe Brothers are featured , as is the Zonophone company, and French and German equipment. One chapter covers promotion and Sales and features Enrico Caruso - ‘the man who made the gramophone' as has been quoted elsewhere - and Yvette Guilbert. Somewhat surprisingly there is also a chapter on sellingequipment on credit. And then there is the special equipment - a  table model of a twelve cylinder coin-operated player for example; twin-diaphram players; hidden garmophones and  tiny portable machines. The book also includes Phonographic Accessories - its a wonder that the popular TV show ‘Collectors' has not featured someone collecting needle tins, but they did feature a bamboo needle sharpenwer as their ‘mystery object' on one show. And here's a device that would have won a round on ‘The Inventors' if the show had been aired at the beginning of the last century - a device to measure turntable speed - strictly speaking, to ensure that it was running at 78rpm. 

 THE GRAMOPHONE GUIDE TO HI-FI
John Borthwick, Auydio Editor of Gramophone (magazone). David & Charles. London, 1982. Hardcover, dustjacket, 256 pages, mono photos and drawings, index, glossary, suggested recordings. Concerns itself very much with equipment and recording; installing and caring for equipment. Very detailed on the technical side which now makes the book extremely useful to the valve and hi-fi disc enthusiast.

THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDED SOUND
The Story of Recordings from the Wax Cylinder to the Laser Disc.
Robert & Celia Dearling, With Brian Rust. 1984. Hardcover, dust jacket, 225 pages, index, mono prints, bibliography. An excellent book, to read, to reference. Half the book covers the development of sound recording including the cylinders, disc and tape. Very good chronology within chapters. Excellent coverage on the types of music and recorded sound, musicians and recording executive and promotors, and equipment. 

AN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY
Pekka Gronow and Ilpo Saunio. Translated from Finnish by Christopher Moseley. Cassell, London, 1998.Softcover, 320 pages, mono photographs, index, bibliography. From ‘The Gramophone Conquors the World', to ‘The Digital Era', a detailed academic thesis, readable, interesting and in no way overbearing. 

RECORDING AND REPRODUCTION - A HISTORY

THE GOLDEN AGE RECORDED
P.G.Hurst.
Originally published by the author in 1946; my ‘New and Revised Edition' published by The Oakwood Press in 1963. Both editionss hardcover, dustjacket. Second edition 187 pages, index, discography, mono drawings (fron ‘Punch' magazine').  I have seen the first edition advertised in Australia for $175.00. This second edition is ‘hard to come by'. Hurst was a reviewer and write for Gramophone magazine, from what year I don't know, but certainly his writings are of a primary research nature - he was there! As it states on the fly, "he embodies the fruits of this expereince s he seems them today". After an int45oduction to this second edition, and ‘A Quick Review', we enter into the first of two parts called ‘A Collector's Survey', where he writes on the technical side of recording development, ‘the early gramophone'. Part two is about the artists themselves, all classical, most are vocalists. As the author was English, the book has a definate British tone. As I know little about the early 20th century sopranos and baritones, this book would help remove such ignorance but I found the first part of the book more to my interests. 

MUSIC ON RECORD 
F.W.Gaisberg. 
Robert Hale Limited, London. 1948. Hardcover, no dustjacket, 269 pages, index. Books such as this stand alone in their content value as they are written by authors who were there at the time, and thus they wriote of personal experiences and indicidents that later writer/researchers use. Gaisberg Gaisberg saw the production of the first Berliner gramophone and became an agent of Berliner to find European talent to record. He didn't do too nad - he forund a fellow called Enrico Caruso at La Scala in 1902. We start with the proverbial ‘cylinder versus disc' debate, ‘from Zinc to wax', the war years, ‘Here Comes the Prima Donnas', and on to the great classical recording artists of Wagner, Kriesler, Chaliapin and others. Thus the classics, with opera, form a greater part of the book. I like the comment re Caruso: ‘His records amde the gramophone'. 

THE STORY OF SOUND RECORDING - JOE BATTEN'S BOOK
Being the Memoirs of Joe batten, Recording Manager (who worked for thirty-nine of seventy-eight recording company (labels) in London during the early part of the 20th century. Rockcliff Publishing Corporation, London, 1955. Hardcover, dustjacket, 201 pages, index, just a few mono photograph (pity there weren't more), list of record companies. It is autobiographies such as these which preserve our historic knowledge of sound recording. I havn't read the book as yet but it looks interesting. A companion to the recording in the USA would also be interesting. 

FROM TIN FOIL TO STEREO - EVOLUTION OF THE PHONOGRAPH.
Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch. First published in 1959, my second edition, second printing of 1977 by Howard W. Sams & Co. Inc., USA. Hardcover, dustjacket, 550 pages, index, mono photographs. The term is used sdo frequently that it has become a boring cliche, but I must say that this is the ‘bible' of phonograph literature.  It is so detailed that top read it from cover to cover is a duanting task, so one tends to ‘dip' into it on many occasions. And the text is rather small, about 9pt, so reading can be tiring - but what great information, thirty chapters, each as gripping and informative as the next. If the detail is more than you need, skip it -  move on - to more detail: of early tinfoil phonographs, phonograph companies, from cylinder to disc and a comparison of them, the vertical and lateral cut groove, the end of the acoustic era, the development of the microgroove... and on to hi-fi and stereo. Wonderful! (I paid $75.00US for this some twenty-five years ago so I have no idea how much a copy would cost today. Maybe it has been reprinted. I bought my copy from the great Amercian recording enthusiast Allen Koenigsberg. 

TALKING MACHINES 1877-1914
Some Aspects of the early History of the Gramophone.
V.K.Chew. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London. A Science Museum Book. 1967. Second Impression with ammendments,  1973. Softcover, 80 pages, mono high gloss photographs, further reading list. 
Another absolute must for those who appreciate the finer points of early recording.  A marvellous book coving the development of sound recording from tin foil recording to ‘unusual talking machines', with the development of equipment in Great Britain, Germany and the USA. 

THE EDISON ALBUM
A Pictorial Biography of Thomas Alva Edison. Lawrence A. Frost. Supwerior Publishing Co., Seattle. 1969. Hardcover, dustjacket, 175 pages, mono photographs. A very well presesented album, plenty of photographs . Covers more than his involvement with sound recording, of course.

THE PHONOGRAPH AND HOW TO USE IT.
Being a  Short History of It's Invention and Development Containing Also Directions Helpful Hints and Plain Talks As to Its Care and Use, etc.
Originally published in 1900 by The National Phonograph Company. This facsimile edition published in 1971 by Allen Koenigsberg, New York. Hardcover, 181 pages, mono drawings. A great book, of exceptional value to the lover of early recorded music. In three parts: The Phonograph, How To Use It, The Opener Papers. Part Fist includes the history of sound recording - medieval and modern, the invention, ie Edison, the first phonograph, and commercial history. Part Second covers the maintenance and use of a large number of cylinder players, including the Gem, Standard, Home , Concert - and coin slot machines would you believe. Part Third is fascinating as it covers the use of the phonography, a ‘phonograph party', the secret of making phonograph recordsthe phonograph as an aid tro language study - and three Greek roots - guess what they would be. The editor, wroter, publisher Allen Koenigsberg is to be lauded for his wonderful contribution to the interest in and preseravtion of our knowledge of early recording and listening.

PLAYBACK
From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, an Money.
Marke Coleman. Da Capo Press, USA, 2003. Hardcover, dustjacket, 238 pages, index, bibliography, a selection of mono plates. Takes more of a business look at the development of sound reproduction - "how the technology shapes the music, howe the music changes the technology, how technology drives the business'. Money, technology - and culture, drive each other. But something must have gone drastically wrong to have developed rap as a form of music!!!

JAZZ  ENCYCLOPEDIAS

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ
Leonard Feather. Horizon Press, New York, 1955. Hardcover, dustjacket (mine missing), 360 pages, many mono photos, index, bibliography, list of record companies, glossary, musician's birthdays, selected discopgraphy. After a brief history of jazz and an analysis of the music, consists predominantly of short, detailed, biographies of the musicians. This was my ‘bible', and still is today. 

THE NEW EDITION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ.
‘Completely revised, enlarged and brought up to date.' Over 2,000 biographies, over 200 photographs. 
Leonard Feather. Bonanza Books, New York. 1960. Hardcover, dustjacket, 527 pages, mono photographs.  As indicated, extensively revised over the 1955 edition. Now the most useful of jazz encylopedias. I checked to see if Ronnie Greb was listed - he wasn't in the 1955 edition nor the ‘Jazz in the Sixties' volume.  He was - at last! Why the interest? Because he was the drummer I saw with Jack Teagaarden and Max Kaminsky in Singapore in 1959. 

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ IN THE SIXTIES
Leonaard Feather. "A complete, new survey of the entire field (of) 1100 biographies, 200 photographs". Bonanza Books, New York, 1966. Hardcover, dustjacket, 312 pages, uncludes as above, also polls of Downbeat and melody Maker. Basically an updated version (with respect to more musiciaans) of The Encyclopedia of Jazz published eleven years earlier, but in many instances, less text in the biographies. (BG is cut to about a third of the original).  Photograph reproduction iss much better, on glossy paper. 

WHO'S WHO OF JAZZ - STORYVILLE TO SWING STREET
John Chilton. First published 1970 by The Bloomsbury Book Shop, London (which Chilton owns). Then Chilton Book Company, Philadelphia, New York, London. 1972. Hardcover, dust jacket, 419 pages, no index, mono photographs. Listings in alphabetic order of artist. The fly suggests that this is indeed the definitive work, "the last word on the subject". Quite possibly, by one must never forget Leonard Feather's contributions. I once wrote on the subject of research provenance, where one writer takes a ‘fact' from a published work, which is then used by another writer, then another etc etc, often perpetuating wrong information iof the original mater is incorrect. Then along comes an author who does some fine original research back to primary sources and disputes all his predecessors. Perhaps Chilton has done just that. So let me check out Benny. Yep, that looks fine, a page and a bit, concise, relevant, interesting. I use this book frequently but it is frustrating that there is no general index. Try finding Cliff Jackson's Krazy Kats for example. 

THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ
Brian Case and Stan Britt. Special consultant Joseph Abend.
Salamanda Books Limited, London, 1978. Softcover, A4 size, 224 pages, index, mono and colour photographs. It is not as comprehensive as other encyclopedias in terms of the number of musicians listed, but those that are come with several hundred to a thousand words of text followed by a very useful list of their recordings. Album covers are also an interesting feature. A very interesting and useful book.

JAZZ - THE ESSENTIAL COMPANION
Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley. Grafton Books (Collins Publishing Group), London, 1987. Hardcover, dustjacket, 562 pages, mono photographs. Being the last of the jazz encyclopedias (in my collection at least), it is extremely useful as it covers the music into the avante guarde and modern era (even though thats not my greatest interest). With the dance and swing band entries it holds it own against previous publications. Try finding something on Sal Nistico in a previous encyclopedia, or Terje Rypdal.  And it includes many British musicians, as it should. (But no Australians that I could see - no Graeme Bell, no Don Burrows!). Still, this is the encyclopedia that stays on my desk. 

POPULAR MUSIC ENCYCLOPEDIS

THE BEST OF THE MUSIC MAKERS
"From Acuff to Ellington to Presley to Sinatra to Zappa and 279 more of the most popular performers of the last fifty years".
George T. Simon and Friends. Doubleday & Co., New York, 1979. Hardcover, dustjacket, 635 pages, mono photographs. Listings in alphabetic order of musician. Another great reference volume by a great writer whose speciality was dance and jazz music. BG is in there of course. This reference fills in the gaps of the early vocalists, amnny of whom became ‘pop' stars and further inffluenced the direction of ‘popular' music. 

THE VIRGIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FIFTIES MUSIC
Colin Larjkin. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Virgin Books, UK. 1998. Softcover, 416 pages, index, no photographs. Alphabetic listings of the musicians and other ‘topics'. This was a great period in the development of recorded music and the transitions of popular music from jazz and blues to rock ‘n roll and beyond. After the end of WW2 in the mid-forties, the big dance and swing bands faded down to smallk combos which emphasised the singers and individual musicians. The boppers and rock n' rollers were leading the trend from the be-boppers who hung on to their jazz through the likes of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Sinatra was leading the pack, Frankie Laine was on the way out, TV gave a boost to Perry Como, and frankly I don't give a damn about Bing Crosby - but Johnnie Ray led the screaming teenagers for a short period and then it was the turn for Piano Red, Bill Haley, Elvis, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, and Something Smith and the Redheads and ‘It's a Sin to Tell a Lie'. Who? Surely you remember! This is a most rewarding book. 

THE PENGUIN ENCYLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC. Edited by Donald Clarke. First published by Viking in 1989.  Penguin Edition first printed 1990, then (this) second edition 1998. Softcover, a whopping 1524 pages, index, no photographs. In alphabetic order of artist, including the jazz and blues masters and the pop stars. It is sacriledge however that Elvis gets a few more paragraphs than Benny! (And I don't think the reviewer particuarly liked the King of Swing). Includes also non-musician listings such as music type, record companies and labels. And bastards like James Petrillo who brought the recording industry to its knees in 1942 and 1948, a great example of union bastardry which did nothing for its members. A most useful reference. 

THE MUSICIANS - COLLECTIVELY

MILLER'S YEARBOOK OF POPULAR MUSIC
Paul Eduard Miller. Pem Publications, Chicago. 1943. Hardcover, no dustjacket, 195 pages, a few mono photographs. In three parts: Biographies, Howto Listen to Hot Music, Record Valuations. The biographies are predominantly of jazz and dance band leaders and musicians, concise with wemphasis on where and when they played. Part two attempts to provide the reader with a greater appreciation of ‘hot' music, without trying to define what it is othr than it is jazz. The record evaluation attemp[tss to evaluate ‘rare, out-of-print' records - the value, in US$ is meaningless today but the comparative values are interesting. Remembeer the book is published in 1943, so all the records are 78s. And it is interesting to compare some of the valuations:  Fletcher Henderson ‘creams' Goodman - but remeber these are valuations for old records and thus the label and the quantity pressed is significant. One of the rarest is BG's Vocalion recording of Wolverine/Jazz Holiday; but Jimmie Noone's Blues/Oh Sister on Vocalion is even ‘rarer'. Bix on Okeh seem to be the most valuable for a single musician. And the Duke is the most prolific (but not so valuable).

HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA
The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made Ir.
Edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff. Peter Davies (publishers), London, 1955. (Probably also printed in the USA, by Rinehart & Co., Inc. Hardcover, dustjacket, 383 pages, no photographs. "This is the story of jazz, as told by the musicians whose lives are that story. This book therefore is not an attempt to duplicate any of the formal histories of jazz that have appeared...". I havn't read it yet but I presume it follows a chronological order. I would think that the format could drive you crazy but it is unique and at least gives the musicians - and there must be at least 120 of them - a chance to express themselves in their own words. 

JAZZ MASTERS OF THE 20s.
Richard Hadlock.
Appears to have been first published in 1965, according to the copyright notation. This Da Capo Press paaperback is an unabriedged republication of the edition published in New York in 1972, with a new introduction and index. Earlier editions appear to have been published by Macmillan Publishing Co. Paperback, 266 pages, index, recommended lustening, a few mono photographs of ordinary quality. Chapters  eleven noteable musiciaans: Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Bix Beiderbecke, The Chacagoans, Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, Jack Teagaareden, Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman, Bessie Smith and Eddie Lang. 

THE JAZZ MASTERS OF THE 30s
Rex Stewart. Da Capo Press, Inc. 1972. Softcover, 223 pages, no index (which maakes it a pretty useless reference). Strong on Ellington. Includes (chapter wise), Jean Goldkette, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Harrisson, Coleman Hawkins, Red Norvo, Joe nanton, Barney Bigard, Ben Webster, Harry Carney, John Kirby, Sidney Catlett, Benny Carter, Art Tatum, Count Basie.

THE SWING ERA 
Editor George G. Daniels. Time-Life Records, New York. 1978. Produced in cooperation with Capitol Records Inc. There were seven volumes in all with three LP's each volume (I have four books but no albums). Hardcover, laminated boards, A4 size, 72 pages, excellent mono photographs. The volumes appear to have been released periodically, and came with three-records. Each track has an excellent write-up, and all musicians are listed. But here's the rub - the music is not the ‘original', and is recreated by either a Billy May or Glen Gray orchestra in the style of the band that it made it popular, eg Bugle Call Rag is in the ‘Benny Goodman version'. Good grief - is that all Capitol records had to offer? The May and Gray musicians are listed per track, and there is a separate ‘discography' listing the ‘main versions' leader and original musicians.  I wish I had the  records? Maybe not. The book displays  society and life in America during the periods, and thus adds an extra dimension to understanding the music of the time. The bands on the road, those doing the one-nighters, and the background scenes, are fascinating. Each volume includes, under the heading, The Men Who Made the Music, chapters on two or more musicians (listed below). But, and forgive the ignorance, but I still don't see the incredible Duke Ellington orchestra as a swing band - but he was there, during the Swing Era, so his inclusion is legitimate. How magnanimous of me!! Excellent reading and browsing, with many photographs I haad not seen before. I have four volumes:
1936-1937. The Movies: Between Vitaphone and Video. (Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson). 
1937-1938. Vintage Years of Humor. (Artie Shaw, Glen Gray, Raymond Scott). 
1938-1939. Where Swing Came From. (Duke Ellington and Count Basie).
1941-1942. Swing As a Way of Life. (The Dorsey brothers and Bob Crosby). 

ENTER THE GIANTS
Humprey Lyttelton. First published by Robson Books Ltd, UK, 1981. Unwin Paperbacks, London. 1984.  Softcover, 188 pages, mono plates, index, discopgraphy, bibliography. The author, himself a top British bankleader and jazz author, provides biographies on eleven of the ‘giants': Louis Armstrong, Fats Wallr, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Teagarden, Art Tatum, Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter, Dickie Wells, Lester Young, Billy Holiday and Roy Eldridge. 

OFF THE RECORD  -  An Oral History of Popular Music.
Joe Smith. Edited by Michael Fink. Sidgwick & Jackson. London. 1988. Softcover, 429 pages, with interviews of "over 200 giants in the business" - from the Big Band era to the present. They are not all there, as this is a contemporary book providing an oral history through contemporary interviews, and some of the ‘giants' were no longer with us. The author had Benny Goodman lined up to be first in the book - but he just missed out, having passed away before the scheduled interview. But there are enough left to provide some interest. The value of the book as a research tool is diminished by its lack of index, and even the interviewee's are listed in dog's breakfast order - I think the publisher's want you to read the book from start to finish. That may not take me long as I could skip many of the listings. After all, do we really need to know what Yoko Ono is thinking? But there are many jazz artists listed including Artie Shaw, Woody herman, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Herbie Hancock, and... well, thats avbout it. Good grief, I see that Olivia Newton-John is listed. This book will not remain by the bedside for long.

DISCOVERING GREAT JAZZ.   A New Listener's Guide to the Sounds and Styles of the Top Musicians and Their Recordings on CDs, LPs, and Cassettes. 
Stephen M. Stroff. Newmarket Press, New York, 1993. Softcover, 179 pages, mono prints, index, bibliography. A history of jazz based on the musicians and their recordings.

JAZZ LEGENDS
"Twenty-four legendary jazz mussicians and profiled in this unprecedented book-CD combination."
Buddy and Chick Crumpacker. Peregrine Smith Book, published by Gibbs Smith, London. 1995. Hardcover, dustjacket, 94 pages, full colour and mono prints. Contains CD of ten tracks (approx 35 minutes music).
No need to list the twenty-four jazz greats - there are actually more than that as some ‘greats' are quartets. The vingnettes are relevant and interesting with important recordings mentioned. 

THE INDIVIDUAL MUSICIANS 

JAZZ MASTERS SERIES
First published in USA in 1984 by Hippocrene Books Inc., New York. Published same year in the UK by Spellmount Ltd. Hardcover, laminated boards, 92 pages, mono plates, bibliography, discography. 
DIZZY GILLESPIE - AND THE BE-BOP REVOLUTION. Raymond Horricks.
COLEMAN HAWKINS . Burnett James. 
OSCAR PETERSON - Richard Palmer.
LESTER YOUNG. Dave Gelly.
CHARLIE PARKER. Brian Priestley. 
COUNT BASIE. Alun Morgan.
Also on the list (but not in my library):
Billie Holiday, Gil Evans, Oscar Peterson. 
Listed as ‘forthcoming volumes':
Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, Buck Clayton, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Weather Report, Stan Getz, Phil Woods, Jack Teagarden, Stan Kenton, Buddy tate. Eric Dolphy, Thelonoius Monk, 
[The publishers appear not to have any interest in the big band leaders apart from the Duke and Kenton.]

KINGS OF JAZZ SERIES:

KING OLIVER 
Martin Williams. Kings of Jazz 8.
Published by Cassell & Company Limited, London. 1960.
Hardcover, laminated boards, 90 pages, mono plates, discography, no index. 
I was going to suggest this as the definitive work on the famous New Orleans and later Chicago trumpeter, but the author graciously recommends Walter C. Allen and Brian Rust's ‘King Joe Oliver'. We ofter remember King Oliver simply for his nurturing and influence on the great louis Armstrong, but there was more to the man's great influence on the development of jazz through his own unique style.

FATS WALLER
Charles Fox. Kings of Jazz 7.
Published by Cassell & Company Limited, London. 1960.
Hardcover, laminated boards, 90 pages, mono plates, discography, no index. 
What a guy - a huge musician in bulk and musical output. A humourist, a writer, a pianist, a vocalist, a wonderful man who has indeed "always occupied a special place". 

COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Raymond Horricks.A Jazz Book Club production. Published 1958. 
Hardcover, dustjacket, 320 pages, index, mono plates, discography of Basie music; surpisingly no index not any plates. 
This is a detailed biography of a most remarkable jazz and big band musician, an excellent pianist and arranger; includes biographies of some of the outstanding sidemen that went through Count Basie's bands.
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BIX - MAN AND LEGEND
The life of Bix Beiderbecke, complete with Chronology and Discography.
Richard M. Sudhalter & Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt.
First published in Great Britain by Quartet Books Limited, London, 1974. Softcover, 512 pages, mono photographs, index. His influence is legendary, his life far too sshort. What would his contribution to jazz have been if he has lived longer than his twenty-seven years.

JAZZ IN REVOLUTION
John Dankworth.
Constable & Co., London. 1998. Hardcover, dustjacket, 230 pages, index, list of films, discography; includes a CD. Funny how thosse who call themselves Johnny drop the ‘ny' when they become more ‘respectable'. Many people know of Johnny Dankworth as accompanist to wife Dame Cleo Laine, a unique singer. But John holds his own as one of Britains finest musicians a saxophonist of high repute, a composer and arranger. I havn't read the book, an extended autobiography,  but it looks very interesting. 

BENNY GOODMAN AND THE SWING ERA.
James Lincoln Collier.
Oxford University Press, New York, 1989.
Harcover, distjacket 404 pages, index, notes. 

SWING, SWING, SWING
The Life and Times of Benny Goodmaan
Ross Firestone. Hodder & Stoughton, London, Sydney, Auckland. 1993. Hardcover, dustjacket, 522 pages, mono prints, index, sources. 
My interst in Goodman is intensely emotional. In January 1959, I waved goodbye to my father at the Singapore airport airport and returned to school in Melbourne. Two weeks later he was dead.  The last gift he had given me was a Benny Goodman album - the Capitol isssue which included Sing, Sing, Sing with Bobby Donaldson on drums. I liked jazz but knew very little of it, and when Dad said he had tickets to see Jack Teagarden at the Memorial Hall in Singapore, I said, ‘who', much to his disgust. I had a long jazz education in front of me. I have since become a BG devotee, and saw him in concert in Melbourne around 1972. I've read both this and Collier's bok and can't pick a preference - both are definitive works. He was indeed the King of Swing (although not the originator), and through his great bands of the thirties developed and inspired the rollicking swing beat that became his initial trademark. As a man of perfection in himself, he expected such in others and barely tollerated musicians not up to his standard. And it was a high standard, for he was one bandleader who was also also one of the finest musicians on his instrument. 

GENE KRUPA - HIS LIFE AND TIMES
Bruce Crowther. First published in Britain in 1987 by Spellmount Limited. This edition by  Omnibus Press, 1988. Softcover, 144 pages, index, bibliography, mono photographs. To hell with Hollywood - Krupa was not a drug adict but it makes for a crap movie. He was the most influencial swing jazz drummer of the thirties. 

GLENN MILLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
George T. Simon.   W.H.Allen, London. 1974. Hardcover, dustjacket, 474 pages, index, discography, mono photographs. A huge book by a respedted jazz author. Could there be so much to say about the man; for a ptted version, see the authors great volume, Dance Bands.  Like the other great band leaders, Goodman and Dorsey, Miller's leadership, enthusiasm, management and business acumen overshadowed his intense personality. But he was both admired and liked by (most of ) his men and it was a great loss when he disappeared over the English Chaannel in 1944. What he would have gone on to be in the music world is anyone's guess, but his skill as an arranger coupled with his business acumwen put him in good stead for a great career in radio and later television.  But it was not to be. 

"I WAS THERE" AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

Biographies where more is said about the jazz of the era rather than the writer, a jazz musician who was ‘there at the time'. In alphabetic order of musician.

WE CALLED IT MUSIC
A Generation of Jazz.
Eddie Condon with Thomas Sugre. First published by Peter Davies Limited, 1948. My edition published 1956 by the (British) Jazz Book Club (proprietors Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd). Hardcover, my copy no dustjacket but there would have been one, 287 pages, index, discography, bried biographies of some of the Chicago bands, mono photographs. I havn't read it as yet. 

FROM BIRDLAND TO BROADWAY - SCENES FROM A JAZZ LIFE.
Bill Crow. Oxford University Press, New York, 1992. Hardcover, justjacket, 274 pages, index, no photographs. We may not know much about Bill Crow as a bass player, but he was there with the greats of the fifties and onward - Dizzy, Bird, Max Roach, Marian McPartland (with the author on bass), Mulligan - and with Benny when he toured Russia in 1962. I havn't read the book as yet but it looks very interesting.

MY LIFE IN JAZZ
Max Kaminsky, with V.E.Hughes. Harper Row, New York. 1963. First edition. Hardcover, dustjacket, 242 pages, index, mono photographs. A recent purchase so I havn't read it as yet, but I was quite excited to find a copy. My spwecific interest was that I saw Kaminsky in concert with Jack Teagarden in Singapore in December 1958. I immediately went to the index to look up ‘singpore' but no mention. So I looked up ‘greb' and sure enough, the drummer was listed as one of the Teagarden sextet. For some reason I managed for all these years to remember his name - but not of the others in the band, other than Kaminsky and Teagarden. The Asia tour of 1958 yakes up a chapter. Looks interesting. The fly blurb states: Max Kaminsky pulls no punches about his friends and enemies he has made, the gruelling cross-country tours on buses, the tough days and nights of unemployment, the fueds and friendships and the pleasures, too, of the everchanging, all-engrossing world of jazz music. 

REALLY THE BLUES. 
Mezz Mezzrow, with Bernard Wolfe. Flamingo, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, London. First published by Random House in 1946. This Flamingo Modern Classic 1993. Softcover, 404 pages, just one single photo of the author, a good clarinetist and bandleader. The book is just about drugs and drug pushing as it is about jazz, as Mezzrow was more into drug pushing than his music from what he admits. This book could be listed under autobiography but it is so broad that it gives an excellent background into the culture of the 1930s and 40s. 

THE TROUBLE WITH CINDERELLA
Artie Shaw. First published by Farrar, Straus and Young, New York, 1952. Then by Da Capo Publishing, as a paperback in 1979 (which I have). Softcover paperback, 394 pages, a few poor quality mono photographs. He always wanted to be a writer, but he was never going to surpass his ability on the clarinet.  It is very much a personal book, wafting on at times, and at the expense perhaps of mentioning more of the musicians he played with and used during his big band era; and more on why he quit and ‘fled' to Mexico, and why he had so many wives (well, thats nothing to do with the music but its interesting). I have read the book and I must say I dodn't really enjoy it. Perhaps I expected more of the music scene than of the man himself. Maybe I should read it again! 

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW
Ethel Waters with Charles Samuels. A Jazz Book Club publication by arrangement with W.H.Allen Limited.  First published in 1951 by W.H.Allen Limited. Jazz Book Club edition published in 1958. Hardcover, dustjacket, 260 pages, no index, no photographs (except one of author). Born in 1900, she has a remarkable career in fronting big bands, reviews, and in the movies. 

TEDDY WILSON TALKS JAZZ
Teddy Wilson with Arie Lighthart and Humprey van Loo.  Foreword by Benny Goodman. Cassell, London, 1996. Hardcover, dustjacket, 179 pages, index, recording chronology, mono plates. Teddy on jazz, with and (mainly) without Goodman his thoughts on the progress of jazz and comments on artists such as Fats Waller who moved from musician to ‘entertainer'. Why did jazz ‘get so big' during the BG era? Teddy has no answer, and finds it amusing.  His aim in the book, as he states, is to ‘correct the images in some people's minds of jazz musicians as either buffoons or debauchees', emphasising their dedication and talent. I can't help saying that the skill of TW's performances on the keyboard far outweights his attempt at being an author, as the matter-of-fact book lacks the passion of his playing

CONCERNING JAZZ

JAZZMEN
Edited by Frederick Ramsey, Jr., amd Charles Edward Smith.
Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1939. Hardcover, no dustjacket, 360 pages, index to music mentioned, generak index, 32 pages of excellent photographs. A compendium of fifteen essays by a similar number  of authors, in three parts: New Orleans, Chicago, and Hot Jazz Today. This is a great book, valuable in its content and probably hard to come by today. King Olver gets a chapter to himself; as does Louis, Bix, the Austin High School Gang, the Five Pennies. It is about the musicians and the development of jazz. One chapter on collecting jazz. 

ESQUIRE'S JAZZ BOOK
Edited by Paul Eduard Miller and (for England) Ralph Venables. 
Peter Davies Limited, London, 1947.  Hardcover, cloth bords, 184 pages, mono plates, biographies. Twelve essays by six authors covering an era in the history of jazz, and other subjects such as Collectors, the Art of Jazz. Includes Esquire's All-American Band - with BG on clarinet of course, and Jack Teagarden on trombone. 

SHINING TRUMPETS - A HISTORY OF JAZZ
Rudi Blesh. Cassell & Company Limited, London, Toronto, Melbourne etc. 1949. (First edition). Haardcover, dustjacket, mono plates, about 380 pages, index, music examples (scores), records cited (details), appendicies. Despite the fact that I can find no information on the author, no doubt demonstrating my ignorance more than anything else, you hve to give the man credit for his exceptional knowledge of ‘the folk-music of the Amercian negro' He makes no bone about the fact that this book is about real jazz - not swing, jive, be-bop - but "a music in which the African ancestral homes of the coloured people still find some nostalic echo - a music in whichg the sadness of an oppressed people blends miraculously with their natural gaiety and genius for the making of music." And furthermore, umpire - "Those who have had their teeth set on edge by ‘swing' and disasterous popular dance music will find here a genuine valuable intropduction to what the American Negro is trying to do when he sits down - alone or in a small group  - to make his own music". Okay, we know where Mr Blesh is coming from. Perhaps the book should have been called The Origins of Jazz. I havn't been able to read it from cover to cover but it is no doubt a great contribution to the literature and knowledge of jazz. 

A HISTORY OF JAZZ IN AMERICA
Barry Ulanov. The Viking Pres, New York. First printed 1950, this second printing March 1954. Hardcover, dustjacket, 382 pages, index, glossary. I first appreciated the name Ulanov when he was quoted frequently by Simon George in his excellent The Big Bands; both were writers for Metronome - Ulanov was editor when he wrote the book. I thus sought out this book as I thought he would have something to say. I was not disappinted. As with Simon's The Big Bands, here we have a book written by someone who was part of the scene; indeed, he helped develop the scene. As a reviewer, he could make or break a band, and could certainly contribute ideas that would be acceptable to the listening and dancing public. If we consider just the biog bands, Simon's book looks at ach band in turn, whereas Ulanov takes a broader view - both are acceptable directions. This is a great book, written with authority, clarity and the obvious passion that the author had for jazz, swing and popular music. 

JAZZ AMERICANA
Woody Woodward. Trend Book 131, Tred Books, Los Angeles, USA, 1956. Softcover, 128 pages, index of musicians, extensive discography, Metronome poll results (1939-1956). An excellent book (and so easy to read in bed!). Five chapters: What is Jazz; Growing Pains; The Twenties; Swing - The Big Band Era; Contemporary Jazz. 

THE BOOK OF JAZZ - FROM THENM TILL NOW.
A Guide to the Entire Field.
Leonard Feather. Bonanza Books, New York, 1957, 1965. Hardcover, dustjacket, 280 pages, index, no photographs, part music scores. There ccpuld be no finer authority on jazz than Leonard Feather. In four parts: ‘the sources', ie the beginnings of jazz; the instruments, a separate chapter on each, and the vocalists, small combos, big bands, composers and arrangers; ‘the anatomy of improvization'; its future - a look at 1984 (which we can now, of course, provide a comparison). 

JAZZ IN PERSPECTIVE - BACKGROUND OF THE BLUES
Ian Laing. A Jazz Book Club production. Published 1957. 
Hardcover, dustjacket, 148 pages, index, mono plates.
Provides a means of attempting to understand the meaning of the blues; from New orleans and the Mississippi through to Chicago, Harlem, and Kansas City. Includes a list of sixty blues records, all presumably on 78rpm, although microgroove 45rpm and 33 1/3 rpm were available by the time of publication. 

CONCERNING JAZZ
Edited by Sinclair Traill. A Jazz Book Club Production. Published 1958.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 180 pages, index, several mono plates.
A collection of essays on jazz by Mezz Mezzrow, Stanley Dance, Hughes Panassie, Gerald Lascelles, Mike Butcher, Douglas Hague, Sinclair Traill, and Brian Nichols. Includes a supplementary record listing. 
Note: The Jazz Book Club publications were produced by publishers Huitchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd, for the proprietors of the club, Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, for sale to its members only. It appears that some publications were exclusively for the members, whilst other first editions were available to the public before a reprint brought them into the hands of the Jazz Club members.

JAZZ: ITS EVOLUTION AND ESSENCE
Andre Hodeir. A Jazz Book Club production. Published 1958. 
Hardcover, dustjacket, 295 pages, index, discography. 
It wouldn't do any harm to have a good understanding of music and music notation to read and fully appreciate this excellent book. The book has been translated from the French. It is a detailed, authorative and somewhat academic disection of the essence of jazz, ‘from the Primitives to the Moderns', and onward to the bop movement and contemporary jazz. 

A HANDBOOK OF JAZZ
Barry Ulanov. Forword by Kingsley Amis. Hutchinson of London, 1958. Hardcover, dustjacket, 204 pages, index, no photographs. Includes a comparative chronology of jazz and other arts in the twentieth century; and sixty pages of very brief musicians biographies. I knew of Ulanov as he was frequently mentioned by George Simon in The Big Bands as a reviewer of such musicians. It starts off with a capsule history (as they all seem to do), followed by a chapter on ‘The Schools of Jazz', ie New Orleans, Chicago etc, and the types of jazz - swing, bob, cool. Then on to ‘the elements of jazz', and an extensive discography. The language of jazz is (now) amusing, as is ‘the morality of jazz'. By the way, he makes a very good attempt at discussing where the word ‘jazz' comes from. And being a reviewer, there is a chapter on ‘the judging of jazz'. 

SKIFFLE - The Story of Folk Song with a Jazz beat.
Brian Bird. Robert Hale Limited, London, 1958. Hardcover, dustjacket, 125 pages, index, mono photographs, When I think of skiffle I think of Lonnie Donegan - and why not as he was a master of this  hybrid folk-jazz music. As Donegan defines, "Skiffle is light-hearted folk-music with a jazz slant and a very difinate beat". I'm not too sure I would include the word jazz as being in any way connected with skiffle, which is dominated by guitars and other strings, but there is a jazz beat - at times. Part One covers the ‘Beginnings of Jazz', before going into ‘All About Skiffle'. Jazz or not, I'll listen to Lonnie Donegan any day. 

SIMON SAYS - THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE SWING ERA 1935-1955.
George T. Simon. Galahad Books, New York, 1971. Large A4 format, hardcover, dustjacket, 490 pages, index, band listing and ratings of Metronome (magazine) band reviews. Another exception book by the man who was with Metronome magazine for decades, a superb author and reviewer with a great love of jazz. Here we have the reviews of the great (and not so great) bands of the peiod, with additional notes penned for the publication. The reviews, in chronological order,  generally include the full line-up of sidemen, and a back ground on the band. So much inforrmation, so much to absorb.  A great companion to Simon's excellent The Big Bands. 

THE JAZZ BOOK - FROM NEW ORLEANS TO ROCK AND FREE JAZZ
Joachim Berendt. Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1976. Earlier editions printed in Germany from 1953. Softcover, 459 pages, extensive discography, no photographs. "Covers the history of jazz through its different styles from the 1890s to the present. Improvisation, harmony, rhythm, the instruments of jazz and all the great performers of the past and present are discussed and impartially evaluated."

AND THE BANDS PLAYED ON
An Informal History Of British Dance Bands. 
Sid Colin.  Elm Tree Books, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1977. Hardcover, dustjacket, 136 pages, mono photographs. Great to read a book on the Britsih bands. I can't say I have been particularly impressed by any  British big band sounds but thats more a measure of my ignorance than anything else. 

JAZZ STYLES
Mark C. Gridley.
Pentice-Hall, Inc. New Jersey, USA, 1978. Softcover, 420 pages, index, supplementary reading, extensive discography, mono photographs and music notation, glossary, guide to record buying. I thought this might be rather heavy going, an academic treatise on jazz and its construction, but I was refreshed at the easy readable style of the university based author. Trying to define jazz is as hard as endorsing rap as music, but Gridley's book goes most of the way to satisfying anyone who wants to know what it is all about, even if you ‘know' what it is just by listening.  Was it Satchmo who said, on being asked what is jazz, "If ya gotta ask, you'll never know." What a brilliant comment.. The book is in twenty extensive chapters, within four parts: Basics of Jazz, (‘What is Jazz' is an early chapter); Premodern Jazz (of Chicago and new Orleans, and the big bands of the 30s and 40s); Modern Jazz (from early 40s to early 60s); and later Modern Jazz. Of particular interest to me was the ‘What is Jazz' chapter, and ‘Appreciating Jazz Improvisation'. 

THE DANCE BAND ERA 
The Dancing Decades from Ragtime to Swing: 1910-1950.
Albert McCarthy. Spring Books, The Hamlyn Publishing Group, Ebgland. 1978. Hardcover, dustjacket, A4 size, 176 pages, index, mono photographs, bibliography, discography. Being a British author, there is a significant mention of the British bands, as well as European Dance Music, in addition to the American bands of course. It cover in more detail the lesser-known (now) bands which nevertheless had influence during the dance and swing band era, and who receive scant comment from other authors such as George T. Simon - bands and leaders such as Lew Stone, Leo reisman, Hal KempRay Noble, Nat Gonella, the Savoy Orpheans, Freddy Martin and the like. 

BLACK ROOTS WHITE FLOWERS  -  A History of Jazz in Australia.
Andrew Bisset. Forword by Don Burrows.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney.First pubished 1979; second revised edition 1987. Softcover, 210 pages, index, mono photographs. From ‘coon songs' to Don Burrows. The only work I know of on the subject. 

BIG BAND JAZZ
Albert McCarthy. First published in Great Britain by Barrie & Jenkins. (My) edition published in 1983 by Peerage Books, London. Large format A4, hardcover, dustjacket, index, record lists, 360 pages, mono photographs. The disappointing point about this book is the reproduction of the photographs - the photographs are interesting and relevant but it is a waste of paper to print a shot of a bid band on porous paper that blurrs the image. Some of the photos are terrible. So disappointing. I rarely refer to the book, although there is a good section on big band jazz in Europe and of course English bands (the author is English, a one time jazz magazine editor); and on some of the lesser-known American bands. As for the quality of the text, I have no idea. I have not read it and probably wont. 

THE JAZZ AGE - POPULAR MUSIC IN THE 1920s
Arnold Shaw. Oxford University Press, New York, 1987. Softcover, 350 pages, song index, general index, discography, bibliography, notes, no photos. An excellent history of the period - in four sections: The Jazz Age, The Harlem Renaisssance, Tin Pan Alley, The Musical Theatre. 

BIG BAND JAZZ
Bruce Crowther, Mike Pinfold. Picture editor Franklin S. Driggs.
Facts on File Publications, New York, 1988. Hardcover, A4 size, dustjacket, 208 pages, index, bibliography, chronology, selected records, mono and colour photographs. A very nicely put together publication on gloss art paper giving some quality to the photographic reproduction. I have only browsed the book - and took great pleasure in doing so - so cannot comment on the quality of the text but the aithors are well respected in their field. The history develops in chronologicl order of course, commencing from ;the early years' of Whiteman, Goldkette and the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, through to chapters on the main players such as Ellington, BG, Miller - and Dorsey, James, Krupa, Crosby, Basie etc etc. And Woody herman of course, and the ‘new concepts' bands of Kenton, Raeburn and Thornhill, and into the post big band era of Bellsonm Rich, Terry Gibbss and Maynard Ferguson.  Finally the new wave bands of thad jones, Don Ellis and others. A very useful book. 

JAZZ
John Fordham. Dorling Kindersley, London, New York. 1993. Hardcover, laminated boards, full colour throughout, large format, 216 pages, index. A simple title supposedly defines a book that covers the full subject; the author and publishers do not let us down. As expected from the publisher, we have an exceptionally well presented book covering ‘all that there is to know' about jazz. Its an ambitious objective, if indeed it was the aim of the publisher, but they and the author have succeeded with distinction. We start off with the proverbial History of jazz. Part two is ‘An Anatomy of Instruments', each informative. Tehn come the ‘Jazz Giants', just twenty of them, but hang-on, where is Benny, Fletcherand another hundred leaders, musicians and arrangers who should be there? The Techniques take up the next section - melody, rhythm, harmony, composing and arranging - all very concise and informative. Of particular interest is the 60 page section on ‘A Gallery of Classic Recordings', complete with photos of album sleeves. How I wish I had some of these albums! A great book to dip into now and then. 

THE POWER OF BLACK MUSIC
Interpreting Its History From Africa to the United Staates. 
Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. Oxford University Press. New York. 1995. Softcover, 316 pages, index, list of printed works cited, list of sound recordings cited. No photographs. The author is Director for the Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago. He is an academic and he writes as one - with authority, with seriousness and with sincerity no doubt, but with as much passion as a drummer's sweat band. Perhaps if I was musically trained and attuned to the theory of it all I could cope but - its all too much for me.

LET'S DANCE
Popular Music in the 1930s.
Arnold Shaw. Edited by Bill Willard. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford. 1998. Hardcover, dustjacket, 240 pages, index, hit parade songs, theme songs, Academy Award nominees. It was the decade of swing, the uplifting of jazz into the dance halls of Amera wih big band sounds playing sweetly or rockin' in rhythm, of crooners and great sidemen solos. A great read, especially compated with the pretentious writing of Lenny Kaye on the same period.

JAZZ - A HISTORY OF AMERICA'S MUSIC
Geoffrey C. Ward (ed). Based on a documentary film by Ken Burns. Several contributors including Wynton Marsalis (interview), Dan Morgenstern, Gerald Early, Gary Giddins, and Stanley Crouch. Alfred A Knopf Publishers, USA, 2000. Large square format, 488 pages, mono and colour plates of excellent quality, selected bibliography, index. The title is legitimate - it is America's music, adopted gradulally, sometimes hesitatingly, by Britain, Europe and Australia from its beginnings around 1907. This is an excellent production, both in its physical layout and presentation, and content. The ten chapters each cover a significant period in the ever-changing 20th century of jazz, from its negro roots to the modern jazz era of the latter part of the century - still dominated, but not entirely so, by African-Americans. The jazz era has passed, replaced by indecipherable lyrics over a repetative thumping  drone of modern music and rap - I must separate the two words. Books such as this will tempt readers to listen to jazz in centuries to come, so maybe one day there will be a revival of dixieland, swing and big band dance orchestras of the future. In the meantime we can listen to CDs with Ward's book by our side. My problem however is that, as I like to read in bed, this huge volume is a health hazard. There is much to commend the book - I particuarly enjoy many of the unique photographs - of a very young Jack Teagarden; and one of Arthur Arshawsky as a four-year old toddler on a bike, who is, much later, quoted as saying that (playing jazz) beats sex - this from a man who later married Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. 

PREDOMINANTLY THE VOCALISTS.

THE JAZZ SINGERS - FROM RAGTIME TO NEW WAVE.
Bruce Crowther and Mike Pinfold. Blandforn Prtess, London, 1986. Softcover, 224 pages, mono prints of average quality, index, discography, further reading.
Looks to be a pretty good book. Chapters include: Africa Europe and the New World; The Empress, King Louis and Sweet Mama String bean; Crooners, Canaries and Lady Day; Smooth, Swimging and Stylish; Shake, Rattle and Sou;, Survivors, Keepers of the Flame and Bebop Betty. I am surprised to see that Russ Colombo only gets a one-word mention, and no mention of Martha Tilton. 

SINGERS AND THE SONG
Gene Lees. Oxford University Press. 1987. Hardcover, dustjacket, 257 pages, no photographs. My initial reaction to the book was not promising - it has no index, and a photo of Sinatra on the cover. I don't like him, simple as that. His first two decades were okay but his arrogant attitude outgrew his voice. Having no index is rather a publisher's disgrace in a non-fiction reference book. Where does Russ Colombo, Bing Crosby (another creep), Bob Eberle, Martha Tilton, Jo Stafford, Ella Fitzgerald and so many others fit in. They must be there - but where? Oh, of course, we need to read the whole book - and make our own index if we want to refer back. Some of the chapter headings give an idea of who dominates - Edith Piaf, Johnny Mercer, Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Dick Haymes, - and Hugo Friedhofer (not exactly a household name, and it will take you a few pages of emotion before you find out why he is included). Ah-ha - Russ is mentioned on page 93 - so is Bing. But, having had a somewhat childish gripe just to get it off my chest, it is a damn site better read than Lenny Kaye's book (see forward). And it's the right size to read in bed! 

YOU CALL IT MADNESS
The Sensuous Song of the Croon. Lenny Kaye. Villard Books, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, 2004. Hardcover, dustjacket, 499 pages, index, mono photographs. Covers the band singers of the twenties and thirties, with Columbo, Crosby and Sinatra well featured. But whereas the author is well versed with the period, the writing is shocking, a pretentious attempt to demonstrate a literary skill which only serves to demonstrate a man showing off. Amazon (ugh!) reviewers feel the same. It is a book terribly difficult to read, not only for the strange idotic prose but the structure of the book - it is not always clear who the hell the author is writing about. This is one of the worst books I have read. I persevered but only to snatch a bit of interesting information amongst the crap. 

THE BLUES  -  Where separate from jazz. 

THE STORY OF THE BLUES
Paul Oliver. First published in 19689 by The Cresset Press; later edition in 1978 by Barrie & Jenkins Ltd, London. Hardcover, dustjacket, A4 size, 172 pages, many excellent mono photographs, discography, bibliography. I havn't read it but it looks to be the better of the volume on the emergence and development of the blues. The early photographs are particularly fascinating. The book gets good reviews and no doubt rightly so. The author is part academic, part reviewer and author, all within the field of the blues. 

THE WORLD OF BLUES
David Harrison. Forword by B.B.King. Studio Editions, London. 1994. Hardcover, A4 size, dustjacket,144 pages, index, further reading. Excellwent mono and colour photographs, fine reproduction. Although a companion volumwe to The World of Jazz, the format here is different, following a chronological lone, thus the development of the blues. 

BLUES LEGENDS 
"The profiles of twenty blues legends come close together in this unprecedented work - the kind of book made for the interior and exterior rainy weather in any blues lover's life". Good grief!! Contains a CD-rom.  Charles K. Cowdery. Photographs by Raeburn Flerage. Peregrine Smith Book, published by Gibbs Smith, London. 1995. Hardcover, dustjacket, 94 pages, full colour and mono prints. From Blind Lemon Jefferson to Buddy Guy. Wot!, no Leadbelly. Very nicely put together book.

THE GUINNESS WHO'S WHO OF BLUES
Edited and compiled by Colin Larkin. Guinness Publishing, England, 1995. Softcover, 414 pages, index,  mono photographs. An encyclopedia in alphabetic order of performer. Piano Red is listed of course, a man who should be credited with one of the first ‘rock ‘n' roll records, the wonderfullly simple ‘Rockin' with Red'. Real name Willie perryman, he later took the name Dr. Feelgood. I was introduced (musically that is) to Piano Red through my father who obviously liked his music in the late fifties as he had (and I have now) several original 78s - including the prized (to me at least) Rockin' with Red. Yes Red, she certainly does know how to rock you. 

YONDER COME THE BLUES - The Evolution of a Genre.
Paul Oliver, Tony Russell, Robert M.W.Dixon, John Godrich, and Howard Rye. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne. First published in three volumes by Studio Vista in 1970, and in the USA by Stein and Day Publishers, 1970. Not sure when this single volume edition printed.  Softcover, index, bibliographies, mono photographs. In three books (as per the original volumes no doubt); Savannah Syncopators; Black, Whites and Blues; Recording the Blues. A great book, very well researched, informative, showing the development of the music we call the blues, and in parallel, the development of recorded music as it applies to the blues. 

THE PICTURE BOOKS
 It is necessary to judge the value of a pictorial book on the quality of the image reproduction, the relevaance of the images and the accompanying captions, and the uniqueness of the images. 

A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF JAZZ
People and Places from New Orleans to Modern Jazz.
Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr. First published in the UK in 1960. This revised edition published 1968 by The Hamlyn Publishing Group , London: sewcond impression 1969. Hardcover, A4 size, dustjacket, 297 pages, index. Many excellent mono photographs with adequate captions - bit once again the quality of the  paper does not do justice to the images. Nevertheless, they are interesting and many are unique. 

THE JAZZ SCENE
Charlea Fox. Special photography by Valerie Wilmer. Hamlyn, London, 1972. Hardcover, A4 size, dustjacket, 127 pages, index, bibliography. Not one of my favourite books as it is too contemporary, but I guess that reflects the veracity of the title, the scene being the sixties and seventies. 

EDDIE CONDON'S SCRAPBOOK OF JAZZ 
Eddie Condon, Hank O'Neal. Galahad Books, New York. 1973. Hardcover, dustjacket, square format, about 200 pages (not numbered, thus no index). He was ‘handy with the guitar' and in 1922 at the age of sixteen hit the road with Hollis Peavey's Jazz bandits. This is a remarkable, unique, ‘book of jazz photos', as the photos have not been issued before (I presume). He played with the best of the jazz musicians, the big bands and small session groups, so there are no shortages of photos of the top musicians of the twneties and thrities, and indeed right through to the fifties. The chapter intrpiduction text is minimal but the photo captions are often extensive. A great book and I believe quite rare. 

BENNY KING OF SWING
A Pictorial Biography Based on Benny Goodman's Personal Archives.
Introduction by Stanley Baron. Thames and Hudson Ltd, (England?), 1979. Large A4 size hardcover, dustjacket, about 200 pages, many mono photographs. Some great photographs, most with the man himself featured, but many with other jazz greats. I had forgotten how good this book was when I came to write up these notes. The biography part (by Baron), is of some sixty pages of large text and adds little to what has already been said, but a good summary nevertheless. But it is a picture book really, hence its inclusion in the Pictorial category. You know, I just wish he hadn't been such a grump - when I read criticisms of his intense personality I feel as though someone is criticising my father. Silly really! But I do remember where I was when my wife phoned me and said that he had passed away: in a resort hotel on the Coral Coast of Fiji. 

JAZZ - A PHOTO HISTORY
Joachim-Ernst Berendt. First published in Great Britain by Andre-Deutsh Limited, London, 1979. Hardcover, large coffee-table square size, dustjacket, 356 pages, index, discographymono photographs throughout. The quality of the photographs is very good both in artistry and reproduction. The German jazz scholar has selected some 370 photographs from a personal archive of 12,000, and supplemented the images with extensive well written captions. This really is the story of jazz, expressed visually, from New Orleans  to Miles Davis - and Europe and Japan. One of the finest ‘picture books' on jazz and a delight to peruse. 

THE WORLD OF JAZZ.
Rodney Dale. 
Phaidon Press Limited. Oxford, 1980. There was also an edition for Connoisseur (publishers) in the same year. Hardcover, dustjacket, large A4 size, 192 pages, index, directory of musicians simple jazz chords. Many mono, some colour photographs.  Fine single-paragraph biographies. Photo reproduction is very good. 

NORM LINEHAN'S AUSTRALIAN JAZZ PICTURE BOOK
Child & Henry Publishing, Sydney, Australia, 1980. Hardcover, A4 size, dustjacket, 118 pages, index, mono photographs. From the late 1940 to the late 1970s. Thwe pghotography is rarther straightforward and the text rather brief but it does give you some idea of who was around post WW2. I found it somewhat useful in filling in a few gaps on recorded musicians. 

NIGHTS IN BIRDLAND - JAZZ PHOTOGRAPHS 1954-1960.
Carol Reiff, with an essay by Jack Kerouac. Simon and Schaster Limited , London, Australia, 1987. Softcover, A4 size, 126 pages, mono photographs. Reiff is the photographer, so the photos are original. She certainly got around as all the mainmusicians are featured. And she has an excellent artistic eye. "These jazz greats are seen in intimate moments through Reiff's innovative eye. She captures the ambience of the smoky clubss, crowded bandstands and queit dressing rooms - the highs and lows of legendary jazz player's lives." A bit of an overplay on the back cover blurb but they are great photos: of Armstrong, Monk, Coltrane, Fitzgerald, Dizzy, the Count, Charlie Minguis, Sonny Rollins and dozens more. 

JAZZ PORTRAITS - AN EYE FOR THE SOUND
Images of jazz and jazz musicians.
Tim Motion. Forword by Ronnie Scott. Salamanda Books Ltd., London. 1995. Large square format, hardcover, dustjacket, 128 pages, index of artists. These are not just simply photos of jazz musicians - these are exceptional photographs in their own right, artistic and creative, depicting a wide range of jazz artists and their music. An exceptional book by twenty-four exceptional photographers. A real pleasure to browse throughText is limited to just a few lines here and there, with brief captions of artist name and date. 

DISCOGRAPHIES

The following are independant discography books, not catalogs. 

THE JAZZ RECORD BOOK
Charles Edward Smith with Frederic Ramsey Jr., Charles Payne Rogers and William Russell. Smith & Durrell, New York. First published 1942. My edition, sixth printing 1946. Hardcover, no dustjacket on my edition, 515 pages, index, bibliography, no photographs. This could well be listed unsder the Musicians section, but as there is a great deal of information on the recordings themselves, here it is under ‘discographies' which is probably more appropriate. In two parts - first we have a Jazz History - you know the story - New orleans, Chicago, New York - blues, boogie, brass. Then we have Recorded jazz, concentrating on the records produced, somewhat in chronological order within chapters - Chicago, New York and Harlem, Blues and Boogie Woogie, Seven Brass, Four Reed. Come to think of it, it is rather more about the muasicians than the records, but let's leave it here. 

THE RECORD GUIDE
Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor. With Andrew Porter and William Mann. Revised Edition. Collins, London 1955. Hardcover, no dustjacket, 957 pages, index of performers, no photographs. Sureely the ‘bible' of its day, and still a useful reference. The listings are in alphabetic on composer. There is a section on ‘collections', and on the Coronation Records'. 

THE GRAMOPHONE POPULAR RECORD CATALOG VOLUME 1.
Fourth Impressions, April 1958. General Gramophone Publications Ltd., Middlesex. Made in England.
Lists 45rpm and 33 1/3 rpm disks, and, apparently (I could not find any), 78rpm releases since 1955 which would have been few and far between. Covers some 25 record labels. 

BG ON THE RECORD  -  A Bio-Discography of Benny Goodman. 
D.Russell Connor and Warren W. Hicks. Arlington House, New York, 1970. Hardcover, dustjacket, 691 pages, mono photographs. In chronological order of recordings. My ‘bible' being a fan of the music if not the man. Extremely useful as it provides full details of the recording, with musicians of course. Includes biographical notations.  My very old copy is water damaged on the cover due to a roof leak - and I have further desecrated the book with comment and stickers of the tracks and albums I have. 

SCHWANN RECORD AND TAPE GUIDE
May 1973. 
W.Schwann Inc., Boston, USA. A monthly publication. I used it to buy LPs during the seventies. Many of these were on spec as there was nothing listed by the barest of of details.The Schwann Catalog, compiled and isssued by William Schwann, was the first of the cumulative cataloges and has been published monthly since October 1949 - later called the Schwann Record and Tape Guide but now probaly has ‘CD' in its title - I havn't seen one for years.  The first 1949 iseue contains recordings by eleven companies 

JAZZ RECORDS 1897 - 1942.
Brian Rust. In two volumes. Arlington House Publishjers, New York, 1978. My edition - 4th Revised and Enlarged Edition. Hardcover, dustjacket, 1992 pages (total two volumes), huge artists index, titles index. The main listing is in alphabetic order of individual artist, or group, providing, where known of course, orchestra and group mussicians and their instruments, and the dates, record and matrix numbers, labels, of recordings. What would we jazz enthisiasts do without Brian Rust? An incredible researcher, a British gentleman of prolific output, who was with the BBC Gramophone Library till 1960.  Anything Rust puts his pen to is worthy of inclusion in any library. 

AUSTRALIAN JAZZ ON RECORD 1925 - 80.
Jack Mitchell. National Film and Sound Archive. An AGPS Press publication, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra 1988. Hardcover, dustjacket, 327 pages. A most valuable listing, presented in alphabetic sequence of the band or artist. It claims to present all known isued jazz recordings made in Australia. Maybe this is so but I have a few records which are not listed, and yet the orchestra is.  I note also that many volcalissts are not listed, and that (at least one) band is listed in the book under a different name to that on the label. There is an excellent index to musicians, separately to tune titles, and an index to record lanbels and catalogue numbers. It is interesting to note hat Australian jazz was recorded under some seventy-nine labels. 

RARE RECORD PRICE GUIDE 1995.
Published by Record Collector Magazine. Diamond Publishing Group, London. 1994. Softcover, 1248 pages. Includes 78s, through to CDs. All are UK releases. The listing is in alphabetic order of artist, with  an (estimated, presumably), value of a record in miont condition, in English pounds. Today, forget about the value of course, and use the book as a guide to what was released, using the values as a rough comparison with other releases - and even that is now of doubtful use. What with eBay, the pricing structure of collectibles, be it records or whatever, is visible to one and all who care to follow the sales. 

RECORDED JAZZ (THE BLACKWELL GUIDE TO)    Second Edition.
Edited by Barry Kernfield.  Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1995. Softcover, 587 pages, index to artists names, index to titles. Although it doesn't indicate it as such, the listing is of selected CDs. Because the write-up on the artists is significant, the book could well be listed under ‘encyclopedia' except that the artists listed are not done so in alphabetic order. There are nineteen chapters covering the various genre periods, the major artists listed within these. 

EPHEMERA

CATALOG OF .... BETTINI REPRODICERS, EDISON PHONOGRAPHS, RECORDS, COLUMBIA GRAPHOPHONES, COLUMBIA RECORDS, TALKING MACHINE SUPPLIES.
A small booklet 7 x 4 inches,  card cover, saddle-stiched, 38 pages, mono photographs.
Facsimilie Edition No. 20. Published in 1972 by Allen Koenigsberg. 
Commences with eight pages of a history of the development of sound recording and the Bettini reproducer. Includes amplifying horns. 

EDISON PHONOGRAPHS - PHONOGRAPH OUTFITS - PHONOGRAPH SUPPLIES
C.J.Moncks, 174 Fifth Avenue, New York. Form No.49, Februaary 1, 1899. A Facsimilie Edition Published in 1973 by Allen Koenigsberg. Booklet, 5½ x 8½ inches, card cover, saddle-stiched, 24 pages, mono photographs of equipment. 
THE GRAPHOPHONE
Indiana Graphophone Co. Stephenson Building, Indianapolis, Ind. September 1907. 
Spear & Co. General Agents. [Models] 907, 908, 909, 910 and 911. 
A Facsimilie Edition Published in 1973 by Allen Koenigsberg. Booklet, 5½ x 8½ inches, card cover, saddle-stiched, 16 pages, mono photographs of equipment. "The Machine That Talks'. Includes description of several models for business or home, plus cylinders and cabinets. 

DIRECTIONS FOR OPERATING THE PHONOGRAPH.
Single card  8½ x 5½ inches, printed both sides, mono drawings. Some text is in very small 6 point - hard to read. 1983 APM Supplement (Edison Class M Instructions).

ANTIQUE PHONOGRAPH & RECORD COLLECTORS' CHECK LIST
Small fold out catalog of Allen Koenigsberg's books and euphemera facsimilies. No date but about 1972. 

PRICE LIST OF BERLINER GRAM-O-PHONES AND SUNDREIES
Manyfactured by E.Berliner, 2315-2319 St. Catherine Street, Montreal, Canada. A Facsimilie Edition Published by Allen Koenigsberg; no date but around 1873. Small booklet, 6 x 3½ inches, card cover, saddle-stiched, 32 pages, mono photographs of equipment. The equipment plays the Beliner discs. Catalog includes ‘The New Automatic Sound Box', needles, ‘extraa large spun-brass horn', record carry case, hearing tube attachmentparts list ... and a few testimonials. 

THE PHONOGRAPHIC RECORD
The Journal of The Vintage Phonograph Society of New Zealand. A Society formed for the preservation of Recorded Sound.
A small saddle-sticked (stapled) magazine on 6¾ x 8¼ inches, usually eight pages. Covers all aspects of early sound recording and reproducing. I have 38 copies from 1965 to 1971. 

THE HISTORY OF THE ART OF SOUND RECORDING AND REPRODUCING
A Chronological List of the Progress of This Art Since the First Recorded Attempt.
Thirteen A4 size single-sides sheets, single stapled. 
No idea where this came from. 

A NUMERICAL CATALOGUE OF EDISON RECORDS FOR THE CONCERT 
A Catalogue of the Series issued 1899-1901. 
Peter Betz.
Produced by The City of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society, November 1968. 
Stapled, photocopied 28 page booklet,  6½ x 8½ inches. Not a particularly good copy. Includes four pages on the equipment avaialble.

JAZZLINE
Official publication of the Victorian Jazz Club.
Vol 8, No2. Winter 1975.
Saddle stapled, 7 x 10 inches, 38 pages. 

EDISON [PARTS CATALOGUE]
A4 size, 30 pages, perfect bound stabled. 
Edison Gem Phonograph, Models B, d.
Edison Fireside Phonograph, Model A.
Edison Standard Phonograph, Models B, D.
Edison Home Phonograph, Models B, D
Edison Triumph Phonograph, Models B, D
Special Parts of Model C Phonographs. 
Edison Amwerola Phonograph. 
Edison Recorder and Edison Reproducers, Models C, H, K.

PRESERVATION AND STORAGE OF SOUND RECORDINGS
A.G.Pickett and M.M.Lemcoe.
A Study Supported by a Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Library of Congress, Washington, 1959.
Near A4 booklet, 74 pages. 
A very technical report concerning the preservation of records of various material.

A GUIDE TO THE EDISON CYLINDER PHONOGRAPH
A Handbook for Collector Containing Details of the Spring-driveen Models Produced from 1895-1929, with Some Notes on the Earlier Models Manufactured by The North American Phonograph Co., The National Phonograph Co., and later Edison Companies at Orange, New Jersey, USA. Compiled by George L. Frow. Francis Antony Limited, England, 1970. So ends the title of the paper. Near A4 size, 64 pages, saddle stapled. Seems to be an extract from Frow's The Edison Cylinder Phonographs 1877 - 1929. 

ANTIQUE PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY 
APM Archives of Recorded Sound. Vol IX-No.$. Issue 84. Produced by Allen Koenigsberg, New  York. Probably 1991. Twenty pages. Quite a few pages of intersting advertisements.

DIRECTIONS FOR SETTING UP THE EDISON PHONOGRAPH
Small booklet of just eight pages, 4½ x 6¼. 

THE MACHINE THAT TALKS
Graphophones with Clockwork Motors.
A small four-page advertising brochure put out by the Columbia Phonograph Company.

RECORD CATALOGS

The first catalogue of recordings offered for sale was a 10-page pamphlet issued by the Columbia Phonograph Co., in 1891, containing some 194 cylinders. The world's first disc catalog was put out by a UK distribution company called Parklins and Goto, of 60 Oxford Street, London, who marketed a German ‘toy' gramophone and ‘plates', as the 5-inch discs were called. The best-selling titles was ‘The Lord's Prayer'.  The first catalog offering a complete world-wide coverage of all makes of classical recordings was The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music compiled by R.D. Darrell and Joselph Brogan, first published in New York in 1936. It was based on (inspired by?) The publication in 1931 of The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of the World's Best Recorded Music. 

GENERAL - COMBINATION CATALOGS
These are commercial catalogues released by the record comapnies. 

COLUMBIA, DECCA. HIS MASTER'S VOICE, PARLOPHONE, 
REGAL-ZONOPHONE, ODEON.
Generally, these catalogs are in alphabet order combining the listings of Song Title, Artist, and Band (musical group). 

RECORDED MUSIC  1942
Comprising aLl issues up to and inclusding December 1941, Supplement and Weekly Release No.44.
Wholly set up and printed in Australia by F.H.Booth & Son. Pty Ltd, Sydney.
(Thus it is presumed that these are Australian releases, and thus equally premumably, are Australian manufactured (ie pressed).
Softcover, 632 pages. Commences with list of Bands, Orchestras, Dance Bands and Orchestras, Conductors, Instrumental (ists), Instrumental Ensembles, Vocal (by style and vocal range).

RECORDED MUSIC 1944
Softcover, 634 pages. Similar comment to above. 

RECORDED MUSIC  1946-46
Comprising all issues up to and including June 1946. Supplementary and Weekly release No.46-9. 
Details as above except 635 pages.

CATALOG OF RECORDS MADE IN AUSTRALIA 1950-1951
Covers labels as listed above except MGM replaaces Odeon. 
Softcover, 128 pages. Wholly set up and printed in Australia by F.H.Booth & Son. Pty Ltd, Sydney. Issued by Columbia Graphophone (Aust) Pty Ltd. Comprising all Australian issues up to and including August 1950, with a suppleementary portion covering records issued in September and October 1950. 

COLUMBIA:

COLUMBIA RECORDS MAGIC NOTES COMPLETE CATALOG 1931.
Softcover, 362 pages. Issued by the Columbia Graphophone (Australia) Ltd., Sydney, NSW. Printed in Sydney. Up to and including December 1930, supplement. Titled as ‘Catalog Columbia New Process Records', and indicated Electric Recording on the cvover. Specifically states Columbia Records are Manufactured in Australia. (This suggests, but does not guarantee, that the records listed were all made in Australia). 

COLUMBIA CATALOG 1946-47
Softcover, 260 pages. Published by Columbia Graphophone Co,. Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, England.

COLUMBIA CATALOG 1948-49
Softcover, 242 pages. Published by Columbia Graphophone Co,. Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, England. Overprinted OVERSEAS EDITION. Printed in South Africa,.

COLUMBIA FINEST NAME ON RECORD
Includes all records issued up to 30th June 1949.
Softcover, 200 pages. 

COLUMBIA - SWING AND POPULAR RHYTHM MUSIC
Compiled by Edgar Jackson. Volume 1(1949)
Softcover, 48 pages. Published by Columbia Graphophone Co,. Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, England. Includes twelve pages of photographs of musicians and vocalists. Contains a complete detailed reference to the Columbia Swing Music Series covering issues made up to and inclduing December 1949. My edition appears to be a photocopy. 

DISCHI FONOTIPIA
(Including Supplement and Addenda). Volume 3.
John R. Bennett. The Oakwood Press, UK. First published 1953, supplement first published 1958. Hardcover, dustjacket, about 130 pages. 
This is a capatog of Italian releases on the Fonotipia label byb the Societa Italiana di Fonotipia in Milan. It is thus a classical catalog, predominantly opera. 

HIS MASTER'S VOICE:

HMV RECORDED MUSIC 1947-48
Containing records issued up to and including June 1947 supplement No. 4706.
Although not specifically indicated as such, this catlog lists British releases.
Softcover, 328 pages. Published by The Gramophone Compaany Ltd. , Hayes, Middlesex, England.

HMV RECORDED MUSIC 1948-49
Containing records issued up to and including supplement No. 4806.
Softcover, 328 pages. Published by The Gramophone Compaany Ltd. , Hayes, Middlesex, England.

HMV RECORDED MUSIC 1949-50
Overprinted as O.S.EDITION
Containing Records Issued Up to and Inclusing Supplement No. 4206 (June-July 1949)
Published by The Gramophone Compaany Ltd. , Hayes, Middlesex, England.
All records listed in this catalog are Made in Great Britain.
Softcover, 352 pages. 

HMV RECORDED MUSIC 1952-53
Softcover, 435 pages. Published by The Gramophone Compaany Ltd. , Hayes, Middlesex, England.

HMV - SWING MUSIC AND HOT RHYTHM RECORDS 1944.
Compiled by Edgar Jackson. Softcover, 72 pages. Published by The Gramophone Compaany Ltd. , Hayes, Middlesex, England.

PARLOPHONE: 

PARLOPHONE RHYTHM STYLE - 1948
Personnel of Bands and Index to Artists. Compiled by Edgar Jackson. 
Includes extensive discographies of prominent jazz band leaders such as Benny Goodman. With eight pages of photographs. Softcover, 112 pages. The Parliophone Company Ltd, Hayes, Middlesex, England.

COMPACT DISCS:

JAZZ ON COMPACT DISCS
A Critical Guide to the Best Recordings.
Steve Harris. Published by Salamander Books Ltd., London 1987. Lists the aavailable recordings of nearly one hunded jazz musicians. Most of coyrse have been redubbed from early recordings for vinyl.